oKr B Tabb 



UBRARY OF CONGRESS 



DDQ1347D357 







LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

^^^f^ 

Chap Copyright No 

Shelf._./_^_^. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



LYRICS BY JOHN B. TABB 



Lyrics by 
John B Tabb 




^»rri ^^^ 



Boston Copelond and Day 
London John Lcrne 

MDCCCXCVII 



ENTERED ACCORDING TO THE ACT 
OF CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR 1 897, 
BY COPELAND AND DAY, IN THE 
OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CON- 
GRESS AT WASHINGTON. 



-J^^lU 



L3 



34726 






TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER, 

THE COWSLIP. 
JT brings my mother hack to me^ 
■^ Thy frail ^familiar form to see^ 

Which ivas her homely joy ,• 
And strange^ that one so iveak as thou, 
Shouldst lift the 'veil that sunders no^w 

The mother and the boy. 



CONTENTS. 

CHERRY BLOOM 

DAWN 

ECHO 

MORNING AND NIGHT BLOOM 

EXALTATION 

HAZARD 

THE YOUNG TENOR 

FRATERNITY 

MY MESSMATE 

"VOX CLAMANTIS" 

NIAGARA 

THE BRIDGE 

THE STATUE 

THE SEED 

THE TREE 

THE SISTERS 

THE GOSSIP 

THE TOLLMEN 

THE PINE-TREE 

TRANSFIGURED 

ANONYMOUS 

MIDNIGHT 

INSOMNIA 

PAIN 

SYMPATHY 

V 



PAGE I 

2 

3 
4 
5 
6 

7 
8 

9 

lO 

II 

12 

14 
15 
i6 

17 
i8 

19 

20 
21 

22 

23 

24 

25 
26 



MEMORY PAGE 27 

LIVERY 2 8 

SLUMBER-SONG ' ^9 

THE SUPPLIANT 3° 

RELEASED 3 1 

WRECKED 32^ 

GONE 33 

AGAINST THE SKY 34 

ILLUSION 35 

SUNSET AT SEA 36 

INTERPRETED 37 

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 38 

OFF SAN SALVADOR 39 

A SIGH OF THE SEA 40 

SHELL-TINTS 4^ 

THE LOST ANCHOR 43 

THE SEA-BUBBLE 44 

DE PROFUNDIS 45 

ALTER IDEM 4^ 

FROM PARADISE 47 

SELECTION 48 

MAIDEN BLOOM 49 

THE RAIN AND THE DEW 50 

THE SHOWER 5^ 

RESIGNATION 5^ 

THE SLEEPING BEAUTY 53 

CLEOPATRA TO THE ASP 54 

vi 



ADIEU 






PAGE 55 


ASLEEP 






56 


IN SOLITUDE 






57 


UNHEEDED 






58 


ALL IN ALL 






59 


THE DEWS 






60 


THE LIFE-TIDE 






61 


ONSET 






62. 


TO A BLIND BABE, 


SLEEPING 


63 


FORESHADOWED 






64 


SUSPENSE 






65 


IMMORTALITY 




V 


es 


SECURITY 






67 


PILGRIMS 






68 


IN THE DEATH CHAMBER 


69 


THE DEPARTED 






70 


THE FOUNDLING 






71 


RETROSPECT 






72 


REFLECTION 






73 


COMMUNION 






74 


TRANSFIGURATION 






75 


BREAD 






76 


SAND 






77 


THE MARSH 






78 


BEACON LIGHTS 






79 


OUTSPEEDED 






80 


THE SIREN STREAM 


TO 


THE OUTCAST 
vii 


81 



AT LAST 
THE PILGRIM 
MY GUIDE 
GIULIO 
BETRAYED 

THE FIRST SNOW-FALL 
AN INTERVIEW 
ANTICIPATION 
THE TRYST OF SPRING 
ONE APRIL MORN 
'j^ AN APRIL PRAYER 
AN AUTUMN LEAF 
MATER DOLOROSA 
INDIAN SUMMER 
OCTOBER 

FROM THE UNDERGROUND 
THE SNOWDROP 
WIND-FLOWERS 
AN APRIL BLOOM 
PEACH BLOOM 
MIGNONETTE 
CLOVER 
IMMORTELLES 

SONG OF THE MORNING-GLORIES 
** CONSIDER THE LILIES "" 
TO A WOOD-VIOLET 
A LOTUS BLOOM 

viii 



PAGE 8 2 

83 
84 

86 



89 
90 

91 
92 

93 
94 
95 
96 

97 
98 

99 

100 
101 
102 
103 
104 
105 
106 
107 
108 
109 
no 



STABAT MATER 
EASTER EVE 



deus absconditus 
god's likeness 
my mediator 



CHARITY 

FULFILMENT 

ON SEA AND LAND 



THE POSTULANT 



A RUBRIC PAGE III 

THE SNOW-BIRD 112 

TO THE WOOD-ROBIN II 3 

THE DEAD THRUSH I15 

CHRISTMAS 116 

THE LAMB-CHILD II7 

THE angel's CHRISTMAS QUEST I18 

RESTRAINT 1 1 9 

GLORIA IN EXCELSIS I20 

ON CALVARY 121 

TO THE CRUCIFIX 122 



123 

124 

EASTER MORNING 1 25 

EASTER FLOWERS 1 26 

GOD 127 

tenebr^ 128 



129 

130 

131 

THE SONG OF THE MAN 1 32 



33 

34 
35 



STILLING THE TEMPEST 1 36 



37 



PURGATORY 1 38 



IX 



BETTER PAGE 139 

LONE-LAND 14° 

QUATRAINS. 

WOMAN ^43 

OPPORTUNITY 144 

LIFE 145 

DEATH ^46 

RELEASE ^47 

LIGHT ^48 

IN DARKNESS ^49 

SILENCE ^50 

FANCY 151 

FAME ^5* 

time's legacy 153 

A CRISIS ^54 

THE CYNOSURE "^55 

RESISTANCE '5^ 

THE BILLOWS I 57 

THE VOYAGER ^5^ 

ADRIFT 1 59 

DEEP UNTO DEEP 160 



VESTIGES 



161 



THE MID-DAY MOON 1 6a 

TO AN EVENING SHADE 163 

HEROES 164 

LANIER'S FLUTE 1^5 
X 



TO AN EXILE jg 

TO A DYING BABE j5g 

MY SECRET jg 

IN ABSENCE j 

A REMONSTRANCE j„j 

NEW AND OLD j-^ 

THE FIG-TREE j_- 

THE BEE AND THE BLOSSOMS 174 

BONE-CASTANETS j^r 

SONNETS. 

DAYBREAK 1 70 

FORECAST I go 

TO AN IDOL igl 

KEDRON jg2 
THE DRUID 



THE HERMIT j 



83 



18s 



POE 

SHELLEY J 35 

AT KEATS'S GRAVE 1 37 



CHERRY BLOOM. 

FRAILEST, and first to stand 
Upon the border-land 
From darkness shriven. 
In livery of Death 
Thou utterest the breath 
And light of Heaven. 

Tho' profitless thou seem 
As doth a Poet's dream. 

Apart from thee 
Nor limb nor laboring root 
May load with ripened fruit 

The parent tree. 



DAWN. 

BEHOLD, as from a silver horn. 
The sacerdotal Night 
Outpours upon his latest -bom 
The chrism of the light j 
And bids him to the altar come. 

Whereon for sacrifice, 
(A lamb before his shearers, dumb,) 
A victim shadow lies. 



ECHO. 

O FAMISHED Prodigal, In vain — 
Thy portion spent — thou seek'st again 
Thy father's door; 
His all with latest sigh bequeathed 
To thee the wanderer — he breathed, 
Alas ! no more. 



MORNING AND NIGHT BLOOM. 

A STAR and a rosebud white, 
In the morning twilight gray, 
The latest blossom of the night. 

The earliest of the day j 
The star to vanish in the light. 
The rose to stay. 

A star and a rosebud white, 

In the evening twilight gray. 
The earliest blossom of the night. 

The latest of the day ; 
The one in darkness finding light. 

One, lost for aye. 



EXALTATION. 

OLEAF upon the highest bough, 
The Poet of the woods art thou 
To whom alone 'tis given — 
The farthest from thy place of birth — 
To hold communion with the earth. 
Nor lose the light of Heaven. 

O leaf upon the topmost height. 
Amid thy heritage of light 

Unsheltered by a shade, 
'Tis thine the loneliness to know 
That leans for sympathy below. 

Nor finds what it hath made. 



HAZARD. 

ONE step 'twixt loss and gain ! 
The summit to attain 
So near the brink of Pain 
Hath joy to go — 

So steep the precipice. 
So frail the footing is, 
'T were death to panting Bliss 
To look below. 



THE YOUNG TENOR. 

I WOKE 5 the harbored melody 
Had crossed the slumber bar. 
And out upon the open sea 

Of consciousness, afar 
Swept onward with a fainter strain, 
As echoing the dream again. 

So soft the silver sound, and clear. 
Outpoured upon the night. 

That Silence seemed a listener 
O'erleaning with delight 

The slender moon, a finger-tip 

Upon the portal of her lip. 



FRATERNITY. 

I KNOW not but In every leaf 
That sprang to life along with me. 
Were written all the joy and grief 
Thenceforth my fate to be. 

The wind that whispered to the earth, 
The bird that sang its earliest lay, 

The flower that blossomed at my birth, - 
My kinsmen all were they. 

Ay, but for fellowship with these 

I had not been — nay, might not be j 

Nor they but vagrant melodies 
Till harmonized to me. 



MY MESSMATE. 

WHY fear thee, brother Death, 
That sharest, breath by breath. 
This brimming life of mine ? 
Each draught that I resign 
Into thy chalice flows. 
Comrades of old are we ; 
All that the Present knows 
Is but a shade of me : 
My Self to thee alone 
And to the Past is known. 



"VOX CLAMANTIS." 

OSEA, forever calling to the shore 
With menace or caress, — 
A voice like his unheeded that of yore 

Cried in the wilderness j 
A deep forever yearning unto deep. 
For silence out of sound, — 
Thy restlessness the cradle of a sleep 
That thou hast never found. 



/" 



NIAGARA. 

WHERE echo ne'er hath found 
A footing on the steep. 
Descends, without a sound. 
The cataract of sleep. 

Like swallows in the spray, 

When evening is near, 
The thronging thoughts of day 

About the brink appear ; 

Till greets a heaven below 
A sister heaven above, . 

Alike with stars aglow 
Of unextinguished love. 



THE BRIDGE. 

WHERE, as a lordly dream. 
Glides the deep-winding stream 
For evermore j 
Calm, as in conscious strength. 
Bends thy majestic length. 
From shore to shore. 

Life, in its fevered heat. 
Surges, with pulsing feet. 

Restless, above ; 
Doomed, in its anxious flow. 
Like the strong tide below. 

Onward to move. 

Strange is the motley throng ! 
Hearts yet untaught of wrong, 

Thoughtless of pain, 
Mingle with souls accurs'd. 
Sands in a desert thirst — 

Clouds without rain. 

While o'er thee and below 
Swift the twin currents flow. 

Thy form serene. 
Still as the shades that sleep 
On the reflecting deep 

Arches between. 



O that, all strife above, 
Strong in the strength thereof 

Man evermore 
Built, with a broader span. 
Love for his fellow-man 

From shore to shore ! 



13 



THE STATUE. 

FIRST fashioned in the artist's brain. 
It stood as in the marble vein, 
Revealed to him alone j 
Nor could he from its native night 
Have led it to the living light, 
Save through the lifeless stone. 

E'en so, of Silence and of Sound 
A twin-born mystery is found. 

Like as of death and birth j 
Without the pause we had not heard 
The harmony, nor caught the word 

That Heaven reveals to Earth. 



14 



THE SEED. 

BEARING a life unseen, 
Thou lingerest between 
A flower withdrawn, 
And — what thou ne'er shalt see- 
A blossom yet to be 
When thou art gone. 

Unto the feast of Spring 
Thy broken heart shall bring 

What most it craved. 
To find, like Magdalen 
In tears, a life again 

Love-lost — and saved ! 



15 



THE TREE. 

PLANTED by the Master's hand 
Steadfast in thy place to stand, 
While the ever-changing year 
Clothes, or strips thy branches bare j 
Lending not a leaf to hold 
Warmth against the winter's cold j 
Lightening not a limb the less 
For the summer's sultriness ; 
Nay, thy burden heavier made, 
That within thy bending shade 
Thankless multitudes, oppressed. 
There may lay them down and rest. 
Soul, upon thy Calvary 
Wait } the Christ will come to thee. 



i6 



THE SISTERS. 

THE waves forever move j 
The Hills forever rest : 
Yet each the heavens approve, 
And Love alike hath blessed 
A Martha's household care, 
A Mary's cloistered prayer. 



17 



THE GOSSIP. 

SO near me dwells my neighbor Death 
That e' en what Silence pondereth 
He catches word for word, 
And promises, some future day, 
To visit me upon his way. 
And tell what he has heard. 



i8 



THE TOLLMEN. 

LO, Silence, Sleep, and Death 
Await us on the way. 
To take of each the tribute breath 
That God himself did pay. 

Nor Solomon's as great. 
Nor Caesar's strong control, 
A-s his who sits beside his gate 
To take of each the toll. 



19 



THE PINE-TREE. 

WITH whispers of futurity 
And echoes of the past. 
Twin birds a shelter find in thee 

Against the wintry blast, — 
The fledgling Hope, that preens her wing, 

Too timorous to fly. 
And Memory, that comes to sing 
Her coranach, and die. 



TRANSFIGURED. 

THROUGHOUT the livelong summer day 
The Leaf and twinbom Shadow play 
Till Leaf to Shadow fade ; 
Then, hidden for a season brief. 
They dream, till Shadow turn to Leaf 
As Leaf was turned to Shade. 



ANONYMOUS. 

ANONYMOUS — nor needs a name 
To tell the secret whence the flame, 
With light, and warmth, and incense, came 
A new creation to proclaim. 

So was it when. His labor done, 

God saw His work, and smiled thereon : 

His glory in the picture shone. 

But name upon the canvas, none. 



MIDNIGHT. 

A FLOOD of darkness overwhelms the land 
And all that God had planned, 
Of loveliness beneath the noonday skies, 
A dream overshadowed lies. 

Amid the universal darkness deep, 
Only the Isles of Sleep, 
As did the dwellings of the Israelite 
In Egypt, stem the night. 



23 



INSOMNIA. 

E'EN this, Lord, didst thou bless — 
This pain of sleeplessness — 

The livelong night. 
Urging God's gentlest angel from thy side, 
That anguish only might with thee abide 

Until the light. 
Yea, e'en the last and best. 
Thy victory and rest, 

Came thus to thee j 
For 'twas while others calmly slept around, 
That thou alone in sleeplessness wast found, 

To comfort me. 



24 



PAIN. 

I AM a gardener to weed 
And dig about the heart: 
To plant therein the pregnant seed. 
And watch, with many a smart. 
The stem and leaf and blossom rise. 

Alternate to supply 
The victims for the sacrifice, 
And, for the fruit, to die. 



SYMPATHY. 

LO ! of gladness or regret 
Teardrops in the violet 
Weeping till her leaves are wet, 
Dewdrops in mine eyes beget ! 

Mirrored in each lucid sphere, 
Highest heaven to earth is near j 
Closer sympathies are here 
'Twixt the dewdrop and the tear. 



26 



MEMORY. 

LO, the Blossom to the Bee 
Yields not more than thou to me 
Food for Love to live upon 
When the summer days are gone, 
Poorer than they came, to find 
What was sweetest, left behind. 



27 



LIVERY. 

OLD-FASHIONED raiment suits the Tree : 
Tho' flouting winds are fain 
To strip the foliage, presently 

He pattern's it again ; 
Fastidious of chivalry, 
Rejecting as in scorn 
All other than the panoply 
His ancestors have worn. 



SLUMBER-SONG. 

SLEEP ! the spirits that attend 
On thy waking hours are fled. 
Heaven thou canst not now offend 

Till thy slumber-plumes are shed j 
Consciousness alone doth lend 

Life its pain, and Death its dread ; 
Innocence and Peace befriend 
All the sleeping and the dead. 



THE SUPPLIANTo 

" /^ DEWDROP, lay thy finger-tip 
V_y Of moisture on my fevered lip," 
The noonday Blossom cries. 

" Alas, O Dives, dark and deep 

The gulf impassable of Sleep 
Henceforth between us lies ! " 



RELEASED. 

GO, bird, and to the sky 
Pour forth what thou and I 
Have suffered here: 
Thou, for thy mate removed, 
And I, for faith disproved 
In one as dear. 

Farewell J and if again 
Thou find for prison-pain 

Felicity, 
Be this thy glad release 
A prophecy of peace, 

Dear bird, for me! 



31 



WRECKED. 

DEEP in the forest glades, 
Where leafy welcomes wooed our wandering way, 
Once blent our shadows in the dallying shades 
That round us lay. 

Thenceforth, of fate estranged, 

Each day beholds our widowed forms apart: 
The word, the glance, the gesture, coldly changed. 

As heart to heart. 

But Cometh night to hide 

Life-wrecks, far drifted in the noonday sun. 
And lo, our shadows, in the sombre tide. 

Again are one! 



32 



GONE. 

THE sunshine seeks thee, and the day, 
Without thee, lonely, wears away: 
And where the twilight shadows pass. 
And miss thy footprints on the grass. 
They weep ; whereat the breezes sigh. 
And, following to find thee, die. 



33 



AGAINST THE SKY. 

SEE, where the foliage fronts the sky, 
How many a meaning we descry 
That else had never to the eye 
A signal shown! 

So we, on life's horizon-line. 
To watchers waiting for a sign. 
Perchance interpret Love's design. 
To us unknown. 



34 



ILLUSION. 

AS yonder circling heavens define 
The limits of the sea, 
And Death on Time's horizon-line 

Shuts out Eternity } 
So, while in banishment apart 

Our widowed lives appear. 
Still holds each love-encompassed heart 
The centre of the sphere. 



35 



SUNSET AT SEA. 

LO, where he sinks from sight. 
The day forgets her light j 
Nor breathes a wave 
To break the silence sweet, 
Where sky and ocean meet 
Above his grave. 



36 



INTERPRETED. 

LO, eastward o'er the billows white. 
Faint-smiling wakes the Child of Night 
From dreams all rosy with delight : — 
What means, O Sea, thy moaning ? 

Full noon: and o'er a cloudless sky 
Soft winnowings of fragrance fly : 
In all the land no shadows lie : — 
What means, O Sea, thy moaning ? 

Far westward, o'er a dying glow, 
Long funeral waves of darkness flow : 
Ah, well-a-day ! too late I know 
What means, O Sea, thy moaning ! 



n 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

WITH faith unshadowed by the night, 
Undazzled by the day, 
With hope that plumed thee for the flight. 

And courage to assay, 
God sent thee from the crowded ark, 

Christ-bearer, like the dove. 
To find, o'er sundering waters dark. 
New lands for conquering Love. 



38 



OFF SAN SALVADOR. 

IT lay to westward — as of old. 
An emerald bar across the gold 
Of sunset — whence a vision grand 
First beckoned to the stranger-land. 

And on our deck, uncoffined, lay 
A child, whose spirit far away 
The wafture of an angel hand 
Late welcomed to a stranger-land. 



39 



A SIGH OF THE SEA. 

" T T THY is it ? " once the Ocean asked, 

VV As on a summer's day, 
Basking beneath a cloudless sky. 
In musing rest he lay, 

" Why is it, that, unruffled still. 

The welkin's brow I see, 
While mine, with racking wind and tide, 

Deep-furrowed oft must be ? 

** Her richest gems, by night displayed, 

Man's filching grasp defy 5 
But safety for my treasures none. 

Though buried deep they lie. 

** The hands that from her diadem 

In reverence recoil, 
Are bold my depths to penetrate 

And of their wealth despoil. 

" A thousand ships with cruel keel 

My writhing waves divide. 
But mariner hath never steered 

Athwart her tranquil tide. 



40 



" Why is it thus, that rest to her 

And toil to me is given, -7— 
That she the blessing ever meets. 

And I, the curse of Heaven ? " 

The Ether heard. Through all her depths 

A deeper azure spread, 
And to the murmuring Ocean thus. 

With radiant smile, she said : 

** Who cleaveth to the earth, as thou, 

Ne'er knows tranquillity j 
Naught pulses in my bosom wide 

But God, whose own am I." 



41 



SHELL-TINTS. 

SEA-SHELL, whence the rainbow dyes, 
Flashing in thy sunset skies ? 
Thou wast in the penal brine. 
When appeared the saving sign. 
' ' Yea ; but when the bow was bended, 

Hope, that hung it in the sky, 
Down into the deep descended 

Where the starless shadows lie ; 
And with tender touch of glory, 

Traced in living lines of love. 
On my lowly walls, the story 

Written in the heavens above.'' 



42 



THE LOST ANCHOR. 

AH, sweet it was to feel the strain. 
What time, unseen, the ship above 
Stood steadfast to the storm that strove 
To rend our kindred cords atwain ! 

To feel, as feel the roots that grow 
In darkness, when the stately tree 
Resists the tempests, that in me 

High Hope was planted far below ! 

But now, as when a mother's breast 
Misses the babe, my prisoned power 
Deep-yearning, heart-like, hour by hour. 

Unquiet aches in cankering rest. 



43 



THE SEA-BUBBLE. 

YEA i a bubble though I be, 
Love, O man, that fashioned thee 
Of the dust, created me 
Not of earth, but of the sea : 
Kindred blossoms then are we — 
Time-blooms on eternity. 



44 



DE PROFUNDIS. 

I HEED it all : no more 
Than to my listening heart. 
Were millions on the shore, 
Couldst thou, O Sea, impart. 

So, long in silence sealed, 
The Word Ineffable 
To Mary's heart revealed 
E'en all that God could tell. 



45 



ALTER IDEM 

TIS what thou wast — not what thou art, 
Which I no longer know — 
That made thee sovereign of my heart, 
And serves to keep thee so: 

And couldst thou, coming to the throne. 

Thy Self, unaltered^ see. 
Thou mightst the occupant disown. 

And scout his sovereignty. 



46 



FROM PARADISE. 

ALL else that in the limit lies 
Of fleeting time, I see : 
The glance, Beloved, of thine eyes 
Alone is lost to me. 

And in the self-same interval. 

The ever-changing place 
Of light's horizon-line is all 

That meets thy lonely gaze. 

Behold the glimmer of a tear, 

The twinkle of a star — 
The shadow and the light how near! 

And yet, alas, how far! 



47 



SELECTION. 

AMONG the trees, O God, 
Is there not one 
That with unrivalled love 
Thou look' St upon ? 

And of all blessed birds, 

Hath not thy Love 
Found for its fittest mate 

The homing dove ? 

Or, mid the flame of flowers 

That light the land. 
Doth not the lily first 

Before thee stand ? 

So says my soul, O God, 

The type of thee. 
** In each life-circle, one 

Was made for me." 



48 



MAIDEN BLOOM. 

WHERE the youthful rivals meet — 
Reddest Rose, and whitest Snow — 
From a trysting-place so sweet, 

Which will soonest go ? 
** Hence with life alone I stray," 

Blushed the flower of balmy breath. 
'^Mine," the snow-wreath sighed, **to stay 
Steadfast e'en in death." 



49 



THE RAIN AND THE DEW. 

" npHOU hast fallen," said the Dewdrop 

X To a sister drop of rain, 
** But wilt thou, wedded with the dust. 
In banishment remain ? " 

<« Nay, Dewdrop, but anon with thee — 

The lowlier born than I — 
Uplifted shall I seek again 

My native home, the sky." 



50 



THE SHOWER. 

AGAINST the royal Blue, 
A Mist rebellious flew — 
A night-born, wind- uplifted shade 
That for an angry moment stayed. 
Then wept itself away. 

The Earth with moistened eyes 

Beholds the sunlit skies 
Again : but never to forget 
The Cloud whose life-drops mingle yet 

With her maternal clay. 



51 



RESIGNATION. 

BEHOLD, in summer's parching thirst, 
The while the waters pass them by. 
The hills, like Tantalus accurst, 

In silent anguish lie. 
Nor look they to the lowly vale 
Wherein their famished shadows glide. 
But, with uplifted glances pale, 
The will of Heaven abide. 



52 



THE SLEEPING BEAUTY. 

THE sculptor in the marble found 
Her hidden from the world around. 
As in a donjon keep: 
With gentle hand he took away 
The coverlet that o'er her lay, 
But left her fast asleep. 

And still she slumbers; e'en as he 
Who saw in far futurity 

What now before us lies — 
The fairest vision that the stream 
Of night, subsiding, leaves agleam 

Beneath the noonday skies. 



53 



CLEOPATRA TO THE ASP. 

** Dost thou not see my baby at my breast^ 
That sucks the nurse asleep ? " 

LIE thou where Life hath lain, 
And let thy swifter pain 
His rival prove ; 
Till, like the fertile Nile, 
Death buries, mile for mile. 
This waste of Love. 

Soft ! Soft ! A sweeter kiss 
Than Antony's is this ! 

O regal Shade, 
Luxurious as sleep 
Upon thy bosom deep 

My heart is laid. 



54 



ADIEU. 

GOD speed thee, setting Sun ! 
Thy beams for me have spun 
Of light to-day 
A memory that one 
Alone could bring, and none 
Can take away. 



55 



N 



ASLEEP. 

AY, wake him not! 

Unfelt our presence near, 
Nor falls a whisper on his dreaming ear: 
He sees but Sleep's celestial visions clear, 
All else forgot. 

And who shall say 
That, in life's waking dream. 
There be not ever near us those we deem 
(As now our faces to the Sleeper seem) 

Far, far away } 



56 



IN SOLITUDE. 

LIKE as a brook that all night long 
Sings, as at noon, a bubble-song 
To Sleep's unheeding ear. 
The Poet to himself must sing, 
When none but God is listening 
The lullaby to hear. 



57 



UNHEEDED. 

YE heavens so cold and clear 
Above me weeping here, 
Where every blossom sheds a tear 
My grief to see ; 
No wonder, free from stain, 
Untroubled ye remain ; 
The vapors gendering the rain 
Are all with me ! 



ALL IN ALL. 

ONE heaven above j 
But many a heaven below 
The dewdrops show — 
God's tenderness 
Subdued in every teardrop to express 
The whole of Love. 



59 



THE DEWS. 

WE come and go, as the breezes blow, 
But whence or where 
Hath ne'er been told in the legends old 

By the dreaming seer. 
The welcome rain to the parching plain 

And the languid leaves, 
The rattling hail on the burnished mail 

Of the serried sheaves. 
The silent snow on the wintry brow 

Of the aged year. 
Wends each his way in the track of day 

From a clouded sphere : 
But still as the fog in the dismal bog 

Where the shifting sheen 
Of the spectral lamp lights the marshes damp, 

With a flash unseen 
We drip through the night from the starlids bright. 

On the sleeping flowers. 
And deep in their breast is our perfumed rest 

Through the darkened hours : 
But again with the day we are up and away 

With our stolen dyes. 
To paint all the shrouds of the drifting clouds 

In the eastern skies. 



60 



THE LIFE-TIDE. 

EACH wave that breaks upon the strand. 
How swift soe'er to spurn the sand 
And seek again the sea, 
Christ-like, within its lifted hand 
Must bear the stigma of the land 
For all eternity. 



6i 



ONSET. 

LO, where the routed shadows pass, 
Upon each lifted blade of grass 
The tokens of a fray — 
Pale life-drops from the heart of Night, 
Mute witnesses of sudden flight 
Before the host of Day. 



62 



TO A BLIND BABE, SLEEPING. 

ARE thy dreams dark ? or is the light 
Alone denied thy waking sight. 
While softer stars their vigils keep 
Within thy hemisphere of sleep ? 

Yea : haply, as noon-blinded beams 
Awake in darkness, o'er thy dreams 
The pity that begets our tears, 
A kindling radiance appears. 



63 



FORESHADOWED. 

SWALLOW, with the spring returning, 
In thine absence change hath been : 
Dost thou mark the lonely places 

Where no more my Love is seen ? 
Never maiden welcomed thee 
Home with lighter heart than she. 

Flitting in the golden sunshine 
Oft thy shadow o'er us strayed. 

Still we smiled, nor recked the warning 
Of a life-dividing shade. 

Now, alas, the world to me 

Mourns that doomful prophecy. 



64 



SUSPENSE. 

BREATHLESS as the blue above thee 
Where a pausing vapor lies ; 
Here, the hearts on earth that love thee, 

There, the souls in Paradise — 
Host for host expectant of thee ! 
Who shall win the prize ? 



6S 



IMMORTALITY. 

E'EN now the spirit moves 
In visions yet to be, 
Whereof the present proves 

A dream and prophecy. 
For still, the shadows gone, 

With light forever new, 
Behold, another dawn 

Proclaims the promise true. 



66 



SECURITY. 

THE Noonday smiles to hear 
The oft-repeated tale 
Of shadows lurking near 
Her sunbeams to assail : 

Nor heeds the placid Night 

A prophecy of doom 
To drown her stars in light 

As fathomless as gloom. 



^1 



PILGRIMS. 

UNTO the fane of Silence come, 
Love-led from alien lands, 
Pale pilgrim Prayers with upward glance. 

And falling tears, and lifted hands. 
And lips with stanched emotion dumb. 
To ask for utterance. 

There, shadow-like, with folded wings. 

In reverence apart. 
They wait till lingering Time hath brought. 

In words or music to the heart, 
What Spring to wintry Nature brings, — 

Release for prisoned Thought. 



68 



IN THE DEATH CHAMBER. 

STILL upon the vacant wall 
Doth the silver phantom fall, 
Like a glory in the gloom 
Of the long-deserted room. 

Soul departed, can it be 
Thou, death-laurelled majesty. 
Mingling, in the moon's disguise. 
With our midnight reveries ? 



69 



THE DEPARTED. 

THEY cannot wholly pass away, 
How far soe'er above ; 
Nor we, the lingerers, wholly stay 

Apart from those we love: 
For spirits in eternity. 

As shadows in the sun. 
Reach backward into Time, as we. 
Like lifted clouds, reach on. 



70 



THE FOUNDLING. 

WHAT time the wandering mother Night 
Made ready to depart, 
A new-born, trembling Dream of Light 

She laid upon my heart. 
" Keep it," she sighed, and bending low 

Wept o'er it where it lay j 
Then, suddenly as April snow, 
Went vanishing away. 



RETROSPECT. 

THE heavens that seemed so far away 
When old-time grief was near, 
Beyond the vista seen to-day, 
Close o'er my life appear j 
For there, in reconcilement sweet, 

The human and divine, 
The loftiest and the lowliest, meet 
On love's horizon-line. 



72 



REFLECTION. 

STARS that with a softer glow 
Waken in the wave below, 
All the stars above you grow 
Wiser for the beams ye throw — 
Light whereby alone they know 
Why we mortals love them so. 



73 



COMMUNION. 

ONCE when my heart was passion-free 
To learn of things divine, 
The soul of nature suddenly 
Outpoured itself in mine. 

I held the secrets of the deep. 

And of the heavens above j 
I knew the harmonies of sleep. 

The mysteries of love. 

And for a moment's interval 
The earth, the sky, the sea — 

My soul encompassed, each and all. 
As now they compass me. 

To one in all, to all in one — 
Since Love the work began — 

Life' s ever widening circles run. 
Revealing God and man. 



74 



TR ANSFIG UR ATION. 

THE cloud unto its parent stream 
That rushes to the sea 
Reveals a far-reflected dream 

Of heaven's tranquillity 5 
And unto faith's adoring sight 

A mystery appears, — 
A cloud transfigured of the light 
In every tide of tears. 



75 



BREAD. 

STILL surmounting as I came 
Wind and water, frost and flame. 
Night and day, the livelong year, 
From the burial-place of seed. 
From the earth's maternal bosom. 
Through the root, and stem, and blossom. 
To supply thy present need. 
Have I journeyed here. 



76 



SAND. 

STERILE sister though I be, 
Twinborn to the barren Sea, 
Yet of all things fruitful we 
Wait the end; and presently, 
Lo, they are not! then to me 
(Children to the nurse's knee) 
Come the billows fresh and free. 
Breathing Immortality. 



n 



THE MARSH. 

THE woods have voices, and the sea. 
Her choral-song and threnody : 
But thou alike to sun and rain 
Dost mute and motionless remain. 

As pilgrims to the shrine of Sleep, 
Through all thy solemn spaces creep 
The Tides — a moment on thy breast 
To pause in sacramental rest ; 
Then, flooded with the mystery. 
To sink reluctant to the sea, 
In landward loneliness to yearn 
Till to thy bosom they return. 



78 



BEACON LIGHTS. 

SISTER Blossoms, ye have kept 
So near the Master while ye slept 
That, as upon the Martyr's face. 
His light celestial we trace 
In yours, revealing dreams that He, 
Asleep upon the stormy sea. 
Beheld, as though your light alone 
His beacon in the darkness shone. 



79 



OUTSPEEDED. 

TO-NIGHT the onward-rushing train 
Would bear thee far from me j 
But, winged with swifter dreams, again 
My spirit flies to thee. 

Nay, speeding far beyond thee, waits 

To welcome thee anew. 
Where Dawn is opening the gates 

To let the darkness through. 



So 



THE SIREN STREAM TO THE OUTCAST. 

COME, for my waves what I can never know 
Of calm bestow ; 
And thou, alas, like them, hast wandered far .' 

Come, erring star — 
Aweary now — come take thy fill of rest 
Upon my breast. 

Come, for they call thee. Lean thy listening ear 

And thou shalt hear 
How soft the sigh that woos thee to the deep 

Of endless sleep. 
Wherein the past and all its passion seem 

A vanished dream. 

Behold, I cleanse whate'er of soilure clings 

To drooping wings : 
Whate' er abides of dust or cleaving clay, 

I purge away 5 
Like fire, refining, but apart from pain. 

All dross and stain. 

The fever-flame that through thy being bums. 

My bosom yearns 
To quench. Behold, the ripples run to meet 

A sister's feet. 
With murmurs, not of scorn, but tenderness. 

To soothe and bless. 

81 



AT LAST. 

HOW full of phantoms are the days 
That shorten as they go ! 
Along the once frequented ways, 

Alas, are none I know ! 
Lone relic of reality, 
I too a phantom fain would be. 



82 



J 



THE PILGRIM. 

WHEN, but a child, I wandered hence. 
Another child — sweet Innocence, 
My sister — went with me: 
But I have lost her, and am fain 
To seek her in the home again 
Where we were wont to be. 



83 



MY GUIDE. 

LIFT up thine eyes, my child. 
That I may see 
The innocence that smiled 
In one like thee — 

Thy mother gone. 

Scarce older than thou art, 

With maiden power 
She won a wayward heart. 

That till that hour 

Had worshipped none. 

Swift as a bird of Spring 

In joyous flight. 
That cleaves with shadeless wing 

The sea of light, 

Our morning fled. 

When, sudden gloom — and lo! 

A troubled sky — 
A wail of stifled woe — 

An agony — 

And hope was dead. 



84 



Then, as a crystal tear 

Of sorrow born, 
Didst thou, pale star, appear. 

Like me forlorn 

In cheerless night. 

I wept, and weeping turned 

To gaze on thee. 
And through the mist discerned 

A beam for me. 

Lit of her light. 



85 



GIULIO. 

" T^ATHER ! " — the trembling voice betrayed 

X The troubled heart. **Be not afraid." 
I softly answered : " Woe is me ! 
Dead unto all but misery ! 
And yet, a child of innocence 
Is mine — a son unknowing whence 
His origin — whom, unaware, 
As with an angel's watchful care, 
Thy gentle hand hath guided. Now 
He waits the consecrating vow 
Of priesthood, and to-morrow stands 
A Levite, with uplifted hands 
To bless thee. May a mother dare 
To look upon that face, and share. 
Unseen, the blessing of her son ? 
Deny me not. So be it done 
To thee in thy last agony. 
As now thou doest unto me ! " 

She had her will. Secluded there 
Within a cloistered place of prayer. 
We saw, and wept ; then, all unknown, 
Shrunk back into the world, alone. 

Days passed. A winter's cheerless mom 
With summons came. A soul forlorn 

86 



Craved help In danger imminent 5 
And, Christlike, on his mission went 
The new anointed. 

" Strange," he said, 
«* The gleams, like inspiration, shed 
Upon the dying ! There she lay. 
Poor reprobate ! life's stormy day 
In clouds departing. Suddenly, 
As from a trance, beholding me, 
* Giulio ! hast thou come ? ' she cried. 
And with her arms about me, died." 

He wondered ; and I turned away. 
Lest tears my secret should betray. 



87 



BETRAYED. 

WHEN first, a new-born babe, he smiled. 
Ere yet a name was given, 
We knew not if the stranger child 
Were more of earth or heaven. 

His eyes, twin dewdrops, took the light 

Of noonday's perfect blue : 
His cheeks, young apple-blossoms white, 

To warmer blushes grew. 

His lips, — a rosy oracle. 

And fragrant as a flower's, — 
Like breathing petals, seemed to tell 

Of sweeter thoughts than ours. 

His name ? — It is a balmy word 

Of sound and silence wove ; 
We caught it when an Echo stirred 

In sleep, and whispered — "Love." 



THE FIRST SNOW-FALL. 

THE Fir-tree felt it with a thrill 
And murmur of content ; 
The last dead Leaf its cable slipt 
And from its moorings went j 

The selfsame silent messenger 

To one the shibboleth 
Of Life imparting, and to one 

The countersign of Death. 



89 



AN INTERVIEW. 

I SAT with chill December 
Beside the evening fire. 
" And what do you remember, 

I ventured to inquire, 
<' Of seasons long forsaken ? " 

He answered in amaze, 
" My age you have mistaken : 
I've lived but thirty days.''^ 



90 



ANTICIPATION. 

THE master scans the woven score 
Of subtle harmonies, before 
A note is stirred ; 
And Nature now is pondering 
The tidal symphony of Spring, 
As yet unheard. 



91 



THE TRYST OF SPRING. 

STERN Winter sought the hand of Spring, 
And, tempered to her milder mood, 
Died leafless on the budding breast 
He fondly wooed. 

She wept for him her April tears. 
But, from the shadows wandering soon, 
Dreamed of a warmer love to come 
With lordly June. 

He scatters roses at her feet, 
And sunshine o'er her queenly brow. 
And through the listening silence breathes 
A bridal vow. 

She answers not j but, like a mist 
O"" er-brimmed and tremulous with light, 
In sudden tears she vanishes 
Before his sight. 



92 



ONE APRIL MORN. 

TWIN violets amid the dew 
Unfolded soft their petals blue 
To find the winter's dream come true. 
One April morn. 

Two warmer, softer, violet eyes, 
Beneath the selfsame April skies. 
Fulfilled a dream of paradise, 
One April morn. 

Dawn-blossoms of a changeful day. 
Ye would not till the twilight stay. 
But, ere the noontide, sped away. 
One April morn. 



93 



AN APRIL PRAYER. 

LORD, to thy signal-light the trees 
In leaf and flower reply : 
Let not my heart, more dull than these. 
Alone unwakened lie. 



94 



AN AUTUMN LEAF. 

A NURSLING of the under-green, 
A tethered wing I poised between 
A heaven above and heaven below — 
Twin Sisters, mirrored in the glow 
Of limpid waters — where the breeze. 
Blind comrade of the listening trees. 
Came wakening with soft caress 
The shadows dumb and motionless. 

There once, at summer's close, a flame 
Of fire and song, a Redbird came. 
And, perched upon my parent limb, 
Outpoured his soul. From joy abrim. 
The bubbling vintage of his brain, 
I quaffed, the while each fibre-vein. 
Deep-reddening with emotion, stirred. 
Alas ! he heeded not nor heard ! 
But when he ceased, and flew away, 
A panting prisoner I lay. 
Close-fettered, till the kindred fire 
Of frost lit up the autumn pyre : 
Then, suddenly, the tidal swell 
Of sap receded, and I fell. 



95 



MATER DOLOROSA. 

AGAIN maternal Autumn grieves, 
As blood-like drip the maple leaves 
On Nature's Calvary, 
And every sap-forsaken limb 
Renews the mystery of Him 
Who died upon a Tree. 



96 



INDIAN SUMMER. 

^T O more the battle or the chase 
J The phantom tribes pursue, 
But each in its accustomed place 

The Autumn hails anew : 
And still from solemn councils set 

On every hill and plain, 
The smoke of many a calumet 
Ascends to heaven again. 



97 



OCTOBER. 

BEHOLD, the fleeting swallow 
Forsakes the frosty air j 
And leaves, alert to follow. 

Are falling everywhere, 
Like wounded birds, too weak 
A distant clime to seek. 

And soon, with silent pinions. 
The fledglings of the North 

From winter's wild dominions 
Shall drift, affrighted, forth, 

And, phantom-like, anon 

Pursue the phantoms gone. 



98 



FROM THE UNDERGROUND. 

BEHOLD, before the wintry gale, 
Across the sea of Night, 
How many a fragrant blossom-sail 
Comes drifting to the light ! 

Whence are they ? Who hath piloted 

Their journey from afar ? 
The self-same miracle that led 

The Magi and the Star. 



99 



THE SNOWDROP. 

BEHOLD, from winter's sleeping side, 
The sacramental power 
Of Nature fashioneth a bride 
As fair as Eden's flower. 



100 



WIND-FLOWERS. 

AS whispers for a moment rest 
Upon the brink of sound, 
Here fragrant breezes blossom-drest. 
Half-visible are found. 



AN APRIL BLOOM. 

WHENCE art thou ? From what chrysalis 
Of silence hast thou come ? 
What thought in thee finds utterance 

Of dateless ages dumb — 
Outspeeding in the distance far 
The herald glances of a star 
As yet unseen ? 

Wast thou, ere thine awakening here. 

In other realms a-bloom ? 
Or swathed in seamless cerements 

Of immemorial gloom. 
Till now, as Nature's pulses move. 
Thou blossomest, a breath of Love, 
Her lips between ? 



PEACH BLOOM. 

A DREAM in fragrant silence wrought, 
A blossoming of petaled thought, 
A passion of these April days, — 
The blush of Nature now betrays. 



103 



MIGNONETTE. 

GIVE me the earth, and I might heap 
A mountain from the plain j 
Give me the waters of the deep, 

I might their strength restrain ; 
But here a secret of the sod 
Betrays the daintier hand of God. 



104 



GLOVER. 

LITTLE masters, hat in liand. 
Let me in your presence stand, 
Till your silence solve for me 
This your threefold mystery. 

Tell me — for I long to know — 
How, in darkness there below. 
Was your fairy fabric spun. 
Spread and fashioned, three in one. 

Did your gossips gold and blue. 
Sky and Sunshine, choose for you, 
Ere your triple forms were seen. 
Suited liveries of green ? 

Can ye — if ye dwelt indeed 
Captives of a prison seed — 
Like the Genie, once again 
Get you back into the grain ? 

Little masters, may I stand 
In your presence, hat in hand. 
Waiting till you solve for me 
This your threefold mystery ? 



105 



IMMORTELLES. 

« 'T^HEY toil not, neither do they spin " — 
X The blossom-Thoughts that here within 
The garden of my soul arise, 
Alike unheeding wintry skies ; 
Or sun or rain, or night or day, 
And never hence to pass away. 



io6 



SONG OF THE MORNING-GLORIES. 

WE wedded each a star, — 
A warrior true, 
That plighted faith afar 
In drops of dew. 

But comes the cruel Dawn : 

The dew is dry ; 
And we, our lovers gone. 

Lamenting, die. 



107 



"CONSIDER THE LILIES." 

TIS not the radiant star above 
That breathes for me the lore of love 
As doth the dewy censer sweet 
That Heaven enkindles at my feet. 

Yea, more for me of tenderness 
Is uttered in the mute caress 
Upon these moistened petals found. 
Than e'er was wedded unto sound. 



108 



TO A WOOD-VIOLET. 

IN this secluded shrine, 
O miracle of grace, 
No mortal eye but mine 

Hath looked upon thy face. 

No shadow but mine own 

Hath screened thee from the sight 
Of Heaven, whose love alone 

Hath led me to thy light. 

.Whereof — as shade to shade 
Is wedded in the sun, — 

A moment's glance hath made 
Our souls forever one. 



109 



A LOTUS BLOOM. 

WAS the dream thou wovest me, 
But a blossom-fantasy ? 
When it faded from my brain, 
Flushed it into flower again ? 

When thy blossom withereth — 
When the fairer flower of Death 
Weaves its vision — shall the dream 
Mine or thine, returning, seem ? 



no 



A RUBRIC. 

THE aster puts Its purple on 
When flowers begin to fall, 
To suit the solemn antiphon 
Of Autumn's ritual } 

And deigns, unwearied, to stand 

In robes pontifical, 
Till Indian Summer leaves the land. 

And Winter spreads the pall. 



THE SNOW-BIRD. 

WHEN snow, like silence visible, 
Hath hushed the summer bird. 
Thy voice, a never-frozen rill 
Of melody, is heard. 

But when from winter's lethargy 

The buds begin to blow, 
Thy voice is mute, and suddenly 

Thou vanishest like snow. 



TO THE WOOD-ROBIN. 

THE wooing air is jubilant with song. 
And blossoms swell 
As leaps thy liquid melody along 
The dusky dell, 
Where Silence, late supreme, foregoes her wonted spell. 

Ah, whence, in sylvan solitudes remote, 

Hast learned the lore 
That breeds delight in every echoing note. 
The woodlands o'er j 
As when, through slanting sun, descends the quicken- 
ing shower ? 

Thy hermitage is peopled with the dreams 

That gladden sleep j 
Here Fancy dallies with delirious themes 

Mid shadows deep, 
Till eyes, unused to tears, with wild emotions weep. 

We rise, alas, to find our visions fled ! 

But thine remain. 
Night weaves of golden harmonies the thread. 
And fills thy brain 
With joys that overflow in Love's awakening strain. 



"3 



Yet thou, from mortal influence apart. 

Seek' St naught of praise } 
The empty plaudits of the emptier heart 

Taint not thy lays : 
Thy Maker's smile alone thy tuneful bosom sways. 

Teach me, thou warbling eremite, to sing 

Thy rhapsody ; 
Nor borne on vain ambition's vaunting wing. 
But led of thee. 
To rise from earthly dreams to hymn Eternity. 



114 



THE DEAD THRUSH. 

LOVE of nest and mate and young, 
Woke the music of his tongue, 
While upon the fledgling''s brain 
Soft it fell as scattered grain. 
There to blossom tone for tone 
Into echoes of his own. 

Doth the passion wholly die 
When the fountainhead is dry ? 
. Nay : as vapor from the sea, 
Lives the dream eternally ; 
Soon the silent clouds again 
Melt in rhapsodies of rain. 



"5 



CHRISTMAS. 

THE womb of Silence bears the Eternal Word, 
And yet no sound is heard : 
The womb of Mary, Virgin undefiled, 
Mothers the Heaven-born Child. 



ii6 



THE LAMB-CHILD. 

WtlEN Christ the Babe was born. 
Full many a little lamb 
Upon the wintry hills forlorn 
Was nestled near its dam j 

And, waking or asleep, 

Upon His mother's breast. 
For love of her, each mother-sheep 

And baby-lamb He blessed. 



117 



THE ANGEL'S CHRISTMAS QUEST. 
« T T 7HERE have ye laid my Lord ? 

VV Behold, I find Him not ! 
Hath He, in heaven adored. 

His home forgot ? 
Give me, O sons of men, 
My truant God again !' ' 

" A voice from sphere to sphere — 
A faltering murmur — ran, 
* Behold, He is not here ! 
Perchance with Man, 
The lowlier made than we. 
He hides His majesty.' " 

Then, hushed in wondering awe. 
The spirit held his breath. 
And bowed : for, lo, he saw 

O'ershadowing Death, 
A Mother's hands above. 
Swathing the limbs of Love ! 



ii8 



RESTRAINT. 

PAUSE while thine eyes are alien to the scene 
That lies before thee. Let the Fancy range, 

As yet she may, sole sovereign of the strange 
Uncharted region of that wide demesne 
Where Truth the tyrant never yet hath been. 

He, once supreme, as in a narrowed grange 

Thenceforth abides forever — Chance and Change 
Foregone his guarded barriers between. 
Pass not: before the all-discerning Light 

The angels veil their faces. To the wise 
The tree of Knowledge in their Eden stands 

Untasted, lest the Death that in it lies 
Prevail, the bud of Innocence to blight, 

And cloud the glimpse of ever-widening lands. 



119 



GLORIA IN EXCELSIS. 
^nniS Christmas night ! Again 
J. But not from heaven to earth - 
Rings forth the old refrain 
'< A Saviour's Birth ! " 

Nay, listen : 't is below ! 
A song that soars above, 
From human hearts aglow 
With heavenly love ! 



ON CALVARY. 

IN the shadow of the rood 
Love and Shame together stood ; 
Love, that bade Him bear the blame 
Of her fallen sister Shame j 
Shame, that by the pangs thereof 
Bade Him break His heart for Love. 



121 



TO THE CRUCIFIX. 

DAY after day the spear of morning bright 
Pierces again the ever-wounded side. 
Pointing at once the birthspring of the Light, 
And where for Love the Light Eternal died. 



122 



STABAT MATER. 

THE star that in his splendor hid her own, 
At Christ's Nativity, 
Abides — a widowed satellite — alone. 
On tearful Calvary. 



123 



EASTER EVE. 

LO , now His deadliest foes prevail ! 
And where His bleeding footsteps fail. 
Like wolves upon a victim's trail, 
They gloat, in purple mockery, " HaiW'' 

O cloud ! O regal vesture torn ! 
O shadow on the shoulders borne ! 
O diadem ! — one starry thorn 
Shall blossom into Easter morn ! 



124 



EASTER MORNING. 
T)EHOLD, the night of sorrow gone, 
J-JLike Magdalen the tearful Dawn 
Goes forth with love's anointing sweet, 
To kiss again the Master's feet ! 



125 



EASTER FLOWERS. 

WE are His witnesses j out of the dim, 
Dank region of Death we have risen with Him. 
Back from our sepulchre rolleth the stone. 
And Spring, the bright Angel, sits smiling thereon. 

We are His witnesses. See, where we lay 
The snow that late boimd us is folded away j 
And April, fair Magdalen, weeping anon. 
Stands flooded with light of the new-risen Sun ! 



126 



GOD. 

I SEE Thee in the distant blue j 
But in the Violet' s dell of dew, 
Behold, I breathe and touch Thee too. 



127 



TENEBR^. 

WHATE'ER my darkness be, 
'T is not, O Lord, of Thee : 
The light is Thine alone ; 
The shadows, all my own. 



128 



DEUS ABSCONDITUS. 

MY God has hid Himself from me 
Behind whatever else I see 5 
Myself — the nearest mystery — 
As far beyond my grasp as He. 

And yet, in darkest night, I know. 
While lives a doubt-discerning glow, 
That larger lights above it throw 
These shadows in the vale below. 



129 



GOD'S LIKENESS. 

NOT In mine own, but in my neighbor's face, 
Must I Thine image trace : 
Nor he in his, but In the light of mine, 
Behold thy Face Divine. 



130 



MY MEDIATOR. 
" 1\T ONE betwixt God and me ? " 
1 >l " Behold, my neighbor, thee, 
Unto His lofty throne 
He makes my stepping-stone." 



13^ 



THE SONG OF THE MAN. 

" 'T^HE woman gave, and I did eat." 

_L Whereof gave she ? 
<' 'T was of the garden fruitage sweet — - 

A portion fair to see ; 
She plucked and ate, and I did eat, 
And lost alike are we j 
God saith. 
Ye die the death ! 

" The woman gave, and I did eat." 

Whereof gave she ? 
" 'T was of her womb a Burden sweet — 

But sad, alas, to see j ^ 
She took and ate, and I did eat. 
And saved alike are we j 
God saith, 
So dieth Death ! " 



132 



CHARITY. 

IF but the world would give to Love 
The crumbs that from its table fall, 
'T were bounty large enough for all 
The famishing to feed thereof. 

And Love, that still the laurel wins 
Of Sacrifice, would lovelier grow, 
And round the world a mantle throw 
To hide its multitude of sins. 



133 



FULFILMENT. 

NO bloom forgotten ! but upon each face 
The dews baptismal, and the selfsame sign 
Of Night's communion, that the fervid gaze 
Of Paschal Morning changes into wine. 



134 



ON SEA AND LAND. 

ONE sobbing wave, above her fellows blest, 
His feet caressed : 
One homeless heart — the lone, unbidden guest 
Her God confessed. 



13s 



STILLING THE TEMPEST. 

"T^WAS all she could: — The gift that Nature 
1 gave, 

The torrent of her tresses — did she spill 
Before His feet : and lo, the troubled wave 

Of passion heard His whisper, " Peace, be still ! " 



136 



THE POSTULANT. 

IN ashes from the wasted fires of noon, 
Aweary of the light. 
Comes Evening, a tearful novice, soon 
To take the veil of night. 



^37 



PURGATORY. 

HOW long, O Lord, how long 
These penal fires among ? 
— Till love with fiercer flame 
The strength of torture tame. 



138 



BETTER. 

BETTER for Sin to dwell from Heaven apart 
In foulest night, 
Than on its lidless eyeballls feel the dart 

Of torturing Light. 
Better to pine in floods of sulphurous fire, 

Than far above 
Behold the bliss of satisfied desire. 

Nor taste thereof. 
Yea, Love is Lord, e'en where the Powers of Pain 

Undying dwell : 
Defiled, in spotless glory to remain 

Were deeper hell. 



139 



LONE-LAND. 

AROUND us lies a world invisible, 
With isles of Dreams, and many a continent 
Of Thought, and isthmus Fancy} where we dwell 

Each as a lonely wanderer intent 
Upon his vision; finding each his fears 
And hopes encompassed by the tide of Tears. 



140 



QUATRAINS. 



WOMAN. 

SHALL she come down, and on our level stand ? 
Nay j God forbid it ! May a mother's eyes — 
Love"" s earliest home, the heaven of Babyland — 
Forever bend above us as we rise. 



143 



OPPORTUNITY. 

ONCE only did the Angel stir 
The pool, whereat She paused in pain 
Another step outspeeded her ; 
The waters ne'er have moved again. 



144 



LIFE. 

THE Power that lifts the leaf above 
And sends the root below, 
Sustains the heart in brother-love 
And makes it heavenward grow. 



US 



DEATH. 

SO sweet to tired mortality the night 
Of Life's laborious day. 
That God himself, o'erwearied of the light, 
Within its shadow lay. 



146 



RELEASE. 

SO long am I a prisoner 
As Time and Thought surround me here 
When Time is dead, and Memory 
Deserts the ramparts, I am free. 



147 



LIGHT. 

WE know thee not, save that when thou art gone, 
Thy sister. Beauty, follows in thy train. 
Leaving the soul in exile till the dawn 

Come with the gift of franchisement again. 



IN DARKNESS. 

DUMB Silence and her sightless sister Sleep 
Glide, mistlike, through the deepening Vale of 
Night 5 
Waking, where'er their shadowy garments sweep, 
Dream-voices and an echoing dream of light. 



149 



SILENCE. 

A SEA wherein the rivers of all sound 
Their streams incessant pour, 
But whence no tide returning e'er hath found 
An echo on the shore. 



150 



FANCY. 

A BOAT unmoored, wherein a dreamer lies. 
The slumberous waves low-lisping of a land 
Where Love, forever with unclouded eyes. 

Goes, wed with wandering Music, hand in hand. 



151 



FAME. 

THEIR noonday never knows 
What names immortal are : 
'T is night alone that shows 
How star surpasseth star. 



153 



TIME'S LEGACY. 

THE night so long to Grief, 
The day to Joy so brief. 
What shall Eternity 
To each, unaltered, be! 



153 



A CRISIS. 

OLEAF, against the twilight seen. 
Move not j for at thy side 
Gleams, trembling lest thou intervene. 
My hope, my star, my guide. 



154 



THE CYNOSURE. 

SO let me in thy heaven of thought appear, 
As doth a twilight star — 
The harbinger of tenderest hopes anear, 
And memories afar. 



IS5 



RESISTANCE. 

RESISTANCE to its pinions light 
Uplifts the bird in airy flight j 
Resistance to the winged soul 
Uplifts it to the lofty goal. 



[56 



THE BILLOWS. 

OF tribes that in the desert fell 
The wandering souls are we — 
Wind-scattered seed of Ishmael 
Upon the sterile sea. 



157 



THE VOYAGER. 

COLUMBUS-LIKE, I sailed into the night, 
The sunset gold to find: 
Alas! 'twas but the phantom of the light! 
Life's Indies lay behind! 



158 



ADRIFT. 

THE calm horizon circles only me. 
The centre of its measureless embrace, 
A bubble on the bosom of the sea, 
Itself a bubble in the bound of space. 



159 



DEEP UNTO DEEP. 

WHERE limpid waters lie between, 
There only heaven to heaven is seen: 
Where flows the tide of mutual tears 
There only heart to heart appears. 



1 60 



VESTIGES. 

UPON the Isle of Time we trace 
The signs of many a vanished race: 
But on the sea that laps it round, 
No memory of man is found. 



i6i 



THE MID-DAY MOON. 

BEHOLD, whatever wind prevail, 
Slow westering, a phantom sail — 
The lonely soul of Yesterday — 
Unpiloted, pursues her way. 



162 



TO AN EVENING SHADE. 

O PILGRIM, ever yearning for the East, 
What fate before thee lies ? 
" The spouse of Night, and, from the wedding feast. 
The Morning's sacrifice." 



163 



HEROES. 

AGAINST the night, a champion bright, 
The glow-worm, lifts a spear of light j 
And, undismayed, the slenderest shade 
Against the noonday bares a blade. 



164 



LANIER'S FLUTE. 

WHEN palsied at the pool of Thought 
The Poet's words were found, 
Thy voice the healing Angel brought 
To touch them into sound. 



165 



POE-CHOPIN. 

O' ER each the soul of Beauty flung 
A shadow mingled with the breath 
Of music that the Sirens sung, 
Whose utterance is death. 



i66 



TO AN EXILE. 

AS still upon the prophet shone 
A light, when God himself was gone, 
So lives, unbanished from thine eyes, 
The splendor of thy native skies. 



167 



TO A DYING BABE. 

O BUBBLE, break ! All heaven thou hast 
Unsullied in thy heart ! 
Ere Time its shadow on thee cast 
Love calls thee to depart. 



i68 



MY SECRET. 

"' ] ^ IS not what I am fain to hide, 

JL That doth in deepest darkness dwell. 
But what my tongue hath often tried, 

Alas, in vain, to tell. 



169 



IN ABSENCE. 

ALL that thou art not, makes not up the sum 
Of what thou art, beloved, unto me : 
All other voices, wanting thine, are dumb ; 
All vision, in thine absence, vacancy. 



170 



A REMONSTRANCE. 

SING me no more, sweet warbler, for the dart 
Of joy is keener than the flash of pain: 
Sing me no more, for the re-echoed strain 
Together with the silence breaks my heart. 



171 



NEW AND OLD. 

NEW blossoms from the selfsame earth, 
Beneath the selfsame skies ; 
New hope with dawn's perennial birth, 
The selfsame heaven supplies. 



172 



THE FIG-TREE. 

FIRST go-between in fallen man's defence. 
To shield, or share his blame. 
Christ-like, to lend the robe of innocence 
Wherewith to hide his shame. 



m 



THE BEE AND THE BLOSSOMS. 

WHY stand ye idle, blossoms bright. 
The livelong summer day ? 
** Alas ! we labor all the night 
For what thou takest away ! " 



174 



BONE-CASTANETS. 

APART, of death and silence we, 
The fittest emblems found, 
Together, mad with minstrelsy. 
Leap into life and sound. 



175 



SONNETS. 



DAYBREAK. 

WHAT was thy dream, sweet Morning ? for, 
behold. 
Thine eyes are heavy with the balm of night, 
And, as reluctant lilies to the light. 

The languid lids of lethargy unfold. 

Was it the tale of Yesterday retold — 

An echo wakened from the western height. 
Where the warm glow of sunset dalliance bright 

Grew, with the pulse of waning passion, cold ? 

Or was it some heraldic vision grand 
Of legends that forgotten ages keep 
In twilight, where the sundering shoals of day 

Vex the dim sails, unpiloted, of Sleep, 

Till, one by one, the freighting fancies gay. 
Like bubbles, vanish on the treacherous strand } 



179 



FORECAST. 

ALL night a rose, with budding warmth aglow. 
Above a sleeper's dreamful visage hung, 
Pale with intenser passion than the tongue 
Of man is tuned to utter. Breathing low, 
The night winds, fledged with odor, to and fro 
Went wandering the languid leaves among ; 
While darkling woke a mocking-bird, and sung 
All echoes that the noonday warblers know. 
The dream, the song, the odor, each in one 
Upbreathing as a starry vapor, spread. 
And from the golden minarets of morn. 
Far heralding the unawakened sun, 
A rapture as of poesy outshed 

Upon the spirit of a babe unborn. 



i8o 



TO AN IDOL. 

MUTE oracle of meek humanity, 
Save to its sense of blindness wholly blind, 

That drifting wide in misery, to find 
Some beacon o'er the night-encumbered sea. 
Steered in pathetic ignorance to thee j 

What sighs, what tears — of agony confined 

Within the sunless prison of the mind. 
Walled up of doubt, and locked in mystery, 

Couldst thou, if thought were voluble, reveal. 
Of panting love, and hopes all winged to rise 

But netted of bewilderment, and worn 

To thin despair, deep-shuddering to feel 
No warmth below, above, no sympathies. 

No rest but in oblivion forlorn! 



18/ 



KEDRON. 

WHERE silence broods on ruin, thou alone, 
Sweet oracle, in rippling numbers low. 

Dost onward through the waste of ages flow, 
As an eternal echo. With thy tone 
Blent David's holy anthems, and the moan 

That shook his heart in exile didst thou know. 

What time his tears of tributary woe 
Commingled with thy wave. And David's Son 
In after years, on Love's vicarious way. 

Breathed life above thee, and thy torrent told 
Its music to the wide-proclaiming sea: 

And still, through all earth's changes manifold. 
Where death and silence strive for mastery, 

Throbs the prophetic burden of thy lay. 



182 



THE DRUID. 

GODLIKE beneath his grave divinities, 
The last of all their worshippers, he stood. 

The shadows of a vanished multitude 
Enwound him, and their voices in the breeze 
Made murmur, while the meditative trees 

Reared of their strong fraternal branches rude 

A temple meet for prayer. What blossoms strewed 
The path between Life' s morning hours and these ? 
What lay beyond the darkness ? He alone 

The sunshine and the shadow and the dew 
Had shared alike with leaf, and flower, and stem: 
Their life had been his lesson j and from them 

A dream of immortality he drew. 
As in their fate foreshadowing his own. 



183 



THE HERMIT. 

HIGH on the hoary mountain-top he dwelt 
Alone with God, whose handiwork above 

The wonders of the firmament approve 
In an eternal silence. There he spelt 
The name of the Omnipotent, and knelt 

In lowly reverence of adoring love. 

Beneath him, all the elements that move 
In Nature's prayerful harmonies he felt. 
And knew their mystic meaning. Thus the tone 

Of lifted billows, and the storm that sways 
The forest-seas in chorus, spake alone 

Divinity, scarce hidden from his gaze ; 
And with their mighty voices blent his own 

In one majestic utterance of praise. 



184 



POE. 

SAD spirit, swathed in brief mortality, 
Of Fate and fervid fantasies the prey. 

Till the remorseless demon of dismay 
O'erwhelmed thee — lo! thy doleful destiny 
Is chanted in the requiem of the sea 

And shadowed in the crumbling ruins gray 

That beetle o'er the tarn. Here all the day 
The Raven broods on solitude and thee: 
Here gloats the moon at midnight, while the Bells 

Tremble, but speak not lest thy Ulalume 
Should startle from her slumbers, or Lenore 
Hearken the love-forbidden tone that tells 

The shrouded legend of thine early doom 
And blast the bliss of heaven forevermore. 



i8s 



SHELLEY. 

SHELLEY, the ceaseless music of thy soul 
Breathes in the Cloud and in the Skylark's song, 

That float as an embodied dream along 
The dewy lids of morning. In the dole 
That haunts the West Wind, in the joyous roll 

Of Arethusan fountains, or among 

The wastes where Ozymandias the strong 
Lies in colossal ruin, thy control 
Speaks in the wedded rhyme. Thy spirit gave 

A fragrance to all nature, and a tone 
To inexpressive silence. Each apart — 

Earth, Air, and Ocean — claims thee as its own j 
The twain that bred thee, and the panting wave 
That clasped thee, like an overflowing heart. 



i86 



AT KEATS' S GRAVE. 

" T FEEL the flowers growing over me." 

X Prophetic thought! Behold, no cypress gloom 

Portrays in dim memorial the doom 
That quenched the ray of starlike destiny ! 
E"" en death itself deals tenderly with thee : 

For here, the livelong year, the violets bloom 

And swing their fragrant censers till the tomb 
Forgets the legend of mortality. 
Nay : while the pilgrim periods of time 

Alternate song and holy requiem sing. 
As through the circling centuries sublime 

They scatter frost, or genial sunshine bring, 
With gathered sweets of every varying clime 

They weave around thee one perpetual Spring. 



187 



THE FIRST EDITION OF LYRICS BY 
JOHN B. TABB IS LIMITED TO FIVE 
HUNDRED COPIES, WHICH HAVE 
BEEN PRINTED DURING MARCH 
1897 BY JOHN WILSON AND SON, 
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 



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